by Sky Winters
To test his theory, Lewis took a deep breath and walked abreast Jake. They didn’t speak, and finally Lewis gathered the courage to reach out and touch Jake’s hand. Jake’s fingers tensed up when Lewis wove his own through them, and they held hands briefly before Jake stopped walking.
“Look, I know it’s romantic being here by yourself where nobody’s watching, but I’d really like to focus on my job right now. I already asked you not to interrupt. Please respect that. This is important to me.” He pulled his hand away from Jake’s and walked on ahead.
Lewis sighed. This was going to be a long assignment.
Chapter 6
Lewis had been working with Jake for the past two weeks. He had made himself as comfortable as he could possibly be in the hotel that Larry had provided for him. His first impression of the town had been wrong. It was much bigger than he’d thought originally. He’d simply followed the GPS to the bar nearest the airport, which, coincidentally, was far outside of city limits. He had been spending his time exploring the area and found that it was a surprisingly nice little haunt. He wouldn’t mind a few more months of exploration.
Everything about his job was perfect. Except for Jake. Things had been awkward between them since the first day. Neither of them dared to speak about what had happened between them, and had to pretend that nothing happened, especially when other people were around. The tension in the room went up sevenfold whenever others were in the room with them, and Jake usually found a corner to hide in while Lewis had to make small talk about the progress of his article.
It was a lucky thing that he was comfortable with strangers, and kept himself armed with questions to ask when things got awkward, whether with Jake or with anybody else. It was part of the gig as an investigative journalist. He just couldn’t figure out what it might take to crack Jake.
Whether he liked it or not, he was wildly attracted to the man, and the longer he spent out in the isolated mountains with him, watching the professional and distant way he handled his work, the deeper his lust for Jake grew.
He thought for a while that his feelings might have just been one-sided, except that one day, while they were deep in the woods, Lewis felt like he was being watched. It was a feeling he was used to in the forest. Sometimes the animals would spot them and flee. But when he looked cautiously around for the source, he met eyes with Jake, who was staring at him with a hungry, shameless look of lust.
But when Lewis approached him after catching him in the act, Jake moved quickly away, as if it had never happened. Still, the incident had left Lewis with the hard-on from hell, and he spent the rest of their time together trying not to do anything foolish. Especially because they had agreed to take out an inexperienced field scientist named Mindy to check on the habitat.
It was encouraging. Jake was constantly on Lewis’ mind. The night they had spent together had been the most erotic of his life to date. And no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move past it. And even though Jake was pretending like it had never happened and trying to play it cool, the animalistic lust in his eyes confirmed what Lewis had suspected all along—Jake wanted him just as badly. But something was holding him back.
Finally, in the third week of research, Lewis decided enough was enough and confronted Jake about it..
“Jake,” he said, trying to keep his voice even and confident. He didn’t want Jake to look down on him somehow.
“Yeah?” he asked, glancing into Lewis’ eyes. Lewis frowned, detecting a hint of sadness in them.
“I know work is important, but can I ask you something?”
Jake sighed in response, but Lewis didn’t let himself get deterred.
“Would you like to go out and, I don’t know…get drinks with me after work or something?”
Jake looked abruptly into Lewis’ eyes, with the same hungry look of longing that Lewis had caught him with a couple of weeks prior. But before he could answer, a loud rumble pierced the air.
“Fuck,” Jake whispered. “The bears!”
The men ran at full speed toward their destination—an intimate looking post where they had been observing the bears in their natural habitat. Once in a while, Lewis would get good pictures from the area. The bears had settled close to the site. But nobody was supposed to be driving this deeply into the forest. They weren’t even allowed to take the off-roader.
When they reached the site, Lewis’ chest was burning with the effort of exertion and he gasped out loud. A group of drunken rednecks were whooping and hollering, aiming their rifles at one of the bear cubs.
“No!” Lewis exclaimed, running forward to try to save the bear.
“Lewis!”
The rednecks cackled when they saw that there were two human targets and turned their barrels on them. Lewis saw an evil glint in the eyes of the man closest to him as he prepared to empty a round into Lewis’ stomach. He knew for certain that he was going to be a goner.
Suddenly, a vicious roar shook the foliage around them and the men paled, scrambling backward in fright. Lewis was shocked when the biggest bear he had ever seen, black and beautiful, leapt over him and lunged at the redneck who was aiming at Lewis. He mauled him with his giant paw, sharp claws ripping into the man’s flesh, leaving his corpse lying on the ground. He emitted a mighty roar and the three other rednecks tried to scramble away and load their weapons at the same time. But they were too drunk to do either one very gracefully.
Before Lewis could register what was happening, the bear was swiping one powerful paw after another until all of the men were writhing in agony on the ground. A deafening roar pierced the air, and the men who weren’t dead cowered, sobbing for mercy. But it was too late for them now.
The bears they had been after originally had heard the call, and now, several of them appeared from the woods. It was as if the mighty black bear had summoned them to finish the job, and they did so, heartily.
Lewis looked away from the gory scene, shocked that somehow he had survived and was still miraculously intact. He turned to find Jake, to ask the more experienced man what to do, but then he realized that the handsome man was nowhere in sight.
He turned back the bears, his gaze settling on the largest bear, and in his heart, he knew the truth. When the giant black bear walked toward him, its gentle brown eyes low to the ground, Lewis swallowed hard.
“Jake?” he whispered.
He squinted as a blinding light flashed before him, and soon the giant bear’s figure was morphing before Lewis’ eyes. The thick black hair disappeared and soon the paws were hands and the muzzle had turned into Jake’s teasing, arrogant smile. Lewis wasn’t entirely sure what to think or how to react. The only thing he knew was that he’d never seen anything more sexy.
“Jake!” Lewis raced toward the other man, who was standing completely nude in the forest. Lewis disregarded the bears around them and was promptly embraced by Jake’s muscular arms.
“I’m so sorry I have been avoiding you,” Jake murmured into Lewis’ hair. “I’ve wanted you so badly that it hurts.”
“Me too,” Lewis whispered.
“But I’ve had a secret to hide. There’s no way you would have believed me if I just told you outright. And I’m bound by a sacred oath not to reveal my identity to any normal humans. I’m not even supposed to feel this way about you. If my pack finds out, I’ll probably be ostracized. Mating with you isn’t allowed.”
“There’s nothing that they can do to us,” Lewis said, touching Jake’s cheek. The stubble felt rough under his hand, and he smiled. “I thought you were mad at me or something.”
“No! I gave you a lot more reason to be mad at me,” Jake admitted miserably. His dark eyes were filled with pain. “I’m a bear shifter. I fall hard and fast, forever, to one man. But since I’m the alpha…”
“Doesn’t that mean that you get to make the rules?” Lewis reminded him. “There’s an exception for everything. Dogma can’t make up our lives in black and white. I learned that much trying to grow up b
oth orthodox Christian and gay at the same time.”
Jake grinned and looked back at the group of black bears that were standing behind them, finishing off the last of the rednecks.
“What do you say?” Jake whispered to them. One of the bears came forward and bowed its head briefly, before shapeshifting into a tall, naked woman.
“If the rest agree,” she said softly. “I give you my blessing.”
The other bears were still for a moment before each of them walked forward and bowed their heads.
“We will not speak of this to the elders, and if we do, we will all take responsibility for your love. This man was willing to risk his life to protect us. As far as we’re concerned, he is one of us.”
Jake’s face broke out into a broad smile and he looked at Lewis with brown eyes, glittering with tears.
“I knew you were the one for me the moment I saw you. Thank you for doing nothing but proving me right.”
The woman smiled and shifted back into her bear form, and the rest of the bears followed her lead as she walked deeper into the forest, leaving Jake and Lewis to kiss passionately in celebration of their love.
Chapter 7
That night, Jake drove Lewis back to his cabin in the woods. They were both quiet, but a gentle hum seemed to fill the vehicle. Jake was sure it was the sound of his heavy heartbeat. He reached over and took Jake’s hand, squeezing it.
When they arrived back to the cabin, Lewis smiled privately to himself. He had been regretting ever going there just a few short days ago, wishing that he’d had the self-restraint not to get caught up in Jake’s sensual web. Jake had hurt him, treating him that way.
But Jake had only done it because he’d broken the rules of his kind and had been worried about what might happen to Lewis if he mated with him. The truth had been that, all along, Jake had been just as tortured as Lewis. And he was working hard to make sure that his family and friends in the bear clan would be safe.
“Come on,” Jake said, his deep voice soft. He tugged Lewis into the cabin, where they were finally free to kiss once again, the same way they had kissed before.
Jake’s passionate tongue slid into Lewis’ mouth, and soon, he was being stripped and caressed by Jake’s capable hands. Lewis pulled Jake’s shirt off and unbuttoned his jeans, letting his pants and boxers drop to the floor. When they were both fully exposed to one another, Jake’s eyes glowed with an amber desire, and Lewis knew that was why they hadn’t been face to face the first time that they’d been intimate. He couldn’t control himself when he was aroused, and it was obvious that Lewis would have asked silly questions the first time.
This time, however, Jake pushed Lewis into the bedroom and forced him onto the bed, where he proceeded to kneel over Lewis’ abdomen and bring the head of Lewis’ aching cock into his mouth. They both shuddered with pleasure as Jake’s tongue worked his body.
Lewis took the initiative, gripping Jake’s firm muscle in his hands. It made sense now why Jake was so big, and why the mystical way he touched Lewis brought him more pleasure than any other man had ever been able to muster. It was as if Lewis had been waiting for this type of love his whole life, without even knowing it.
Jake grunted appreciatively as Lewis stroked him, and bobbed his head rhythmically until Lewis wasn’t able to control himself any longer. He cried out in rapture as Jake took his hot mouth away, letting streams of Lewis’ semen fall into his hands.
Jake wasted no time in pushing himself up off the bed and lubricating his massive erection with Lewis’ cum. He pushed Lewis onto his stomach and lifted his hips in one graceful move. Lewis panted as bliss overtook him, and Jake began to work his way inside of Lewis’ thighs. He reached around and began to fondle Lewis with long, bold strokes, until he was nearly crazy with longing.
Jake immediately set to work in moving his hips, allowing himself to take pleasure where it could be found. Lewis moaned in ecstasy as Jake’s powerful body rammed into his, sending endless waves of pleasure coursing through him. He had never had a lover more powerful, yet still caring and considerate of his pleasure.
They groaned together as Lewis’ body gave way to another orgasm. But Jake was far from done. His stamina would impress the most skilled of lovers, and Lewis wasn’t sure if it was because he was a bear shifter, or because he was just an alpha type of man.
Lewis gasped in ecstasy when Jake slowed his movement and gripped his cock one more time, making it hard again with just one touch. He hadn’t known that men could manage multiple orgasms, but with Jake there was no other option. The man knew exactly how to work his body.
Soon, Lewis was overwhelmed by immense pleasure and they both cried out in ecstasy as Jake’s cock shuddered inside Lewis. The rapid bucking of Jake’s hips grew to a fever pitch as he came close to shooting his load deep inside of Lewis. Somehow he was able to delay the inevitable and gripped Lewis’s cock hard, jerking it back and forth until they were both so close to coming that Lewis nearly cried.
Finally, Jake gave a ferocious roar and an explosion of semen rocked their bodies. Lewis was overcome by pleasure and joined Jake in his climax, his body filled by the powerful force of Jake’s orgasm. They grunted together as Jake thrust until he was finally flaccid, and then pulled gently out of Lewis with a broad smile.
“I missed you so much,” he said, propping himself up on the pillow beside Lewis. “You have no idea how hard it was for me to keep myself at a distance. I thought I would endanger you if I didn’t. My family can be a little…mean…to outsiders.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” Lewis said, stroking Jake’s cheek. They kissed deeply, a long, lingering kiss that Lewis wished would never end. “I understand that you wanted to protect me.”
“More than anything,” Jake said, looking suddenly very serious. His deep, amber eyes bore into Lewis’. “And I’m going to protect you for the rest of our lives. From now on, you’re mine.”
Jake gripped Lewis by the waist and pulled him close to his warm body, showering his neck and shoulders with tender kisses.
“And you’re mine,” Lewis said blissfully, as Jake’s strong arm draped around him.
He closed his eyes, shocked by the pleasure that he had stumbled into during his random assignment to the Ozark mountains. He had known when he first arrived that it would be hard to leave the comfortable little place, but now he had to accept that leaving was going to be impossible. He had found the place where he was supposed to be. A spot in the world where he really belonged. And as long as he lived, he was going to treasure it.
Howling for the Bear
“Another one, Zebe?”
“Yes. Just keep them coming, Andy.”
“Will do, partner. Hey, I’m sorry to hear about Caleb. He was a good guy.”
“He was the best. Thanks.”
Zebe stared down at the bar, feeling like all of the wind had been knocked out of him. It had been a long day and he felt emotionally and physically drained. When his brother, Caleb, had been found in the woods by local hikers, local authorities had chalked it up to a random bear attack, but Zebe and his family knew the truth. It was no random attack and it was no ordinary bear.
As the bar filled with members of the community that knew him and his family, there were continued expressions of sympathy for his loss. They bought him drinks and tried to console him. What he really wanted was just to be left alone to dull the pain. Picking up his glass, he moved over to a quiet booth near the back where he would be less obvious to them. The quiet didn’t last long.
“You look like you’ve had a rough day, gorgeous,” a quiet voice said from nearby.
Zebe squinted up at the guy standing in front of his table. He was tall, broad shouldered and gorgeous. His thick black hair was closely cropped, giving him a buff military look. Perhaps he was just what was needed to forget his pain, at least for tonight.
“Something like that,” he replied.
“Do you mind if I join you?”
“Not at al
l. Have a seat.”
“I’m Blake.”
“Good to meet you, Blake. Are you from Bozeman?”
“Not originally. I just moved over here from Butte.”
“Liking it so far?”
“It’s interesting. How about you?”
“Born and raised.”
“How about I buy you another drink?”
“I have a better idea, how about we just skip the small talk and go back to my place for another drink?”
“That sounds even better.”
The two of them made their way out to their bikes and headed off toward Zebe’s house, a large farmhouse on the outskirts of town surrounded by acres of nothing but fields, trees and streams and, on one side, mountains.
“This is quite remote,” Blake commented as they parked their bikes and walked toward the stately wrap around porch.
“It was my brother’s place. He died recently and so, I guess it is mine now.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Thanks. Anyway, let’s not talk about that. Let’s get a drink and chat a bit.”
“Sure.”
The two of them kicked back on the sofa with a bottle of scotch and a couple of glasses. Zebe was surprised at how well he felt he already knew Blake. It was if they just clicked instantly. It wasn’t long until all conversation took a turn for the physical.
“You have the most beautiful eyes,” Blake said, brushing away a sandy lock of hair from Zebe’s face.
Rather than respond, Zebe smiled and leaned in to kiss him. For a moment, it was like fireworks going off, but then something struck him. Being so close, he couldn’t help but notice the distinct smell of his skin. He hadn’t noticed it so much earlier due to the amount he’d had to drink, but they had slowed down quite a bit while talking and he had sobered a bit. The scent was one he was all too familiar with and he pulled away for a moment and looked at him, hesitant.
“I don’t care if you don’t,” Blake said, understanding exactly what was running through his mind.
Zebe sighed and pulled him toward him, kissing him deeply. The passion ignited between them only made the scent stronger, as Zeke was sure it did with his own. There was no doubt about what Blake was, and that he knew exactly what Zeke was, as well. Still, there seemed to be no stopping them as their passion took on a life of its own.